Ask HN: Business Dying. Please Help.
TL;DR - Business is dying. Desperately need your help.
Full disclosure: My name is Feldo and I am new to this site. A friend recommended I post here. Apologies if this is not allowed.
My business is on the verge of death, literally. We are a local Bay Area food startup that caters to startups, specifically Asian Fusion & Satays. Most of our business has been through two catering agencies but due to a mistake that was all my fault, we were recently dropped from 1 yesterday, which was the majority of our business. We were already negative before this. We can't survive much longer like this and being completely honest, this is dragging me near to tears. I've worked hard for years trying to get to where we are and pivoted this food business at least twice already in 3 years. We are only 3 guys.
Admittedly all of this is entirely my fault as I haven't tried as hard as I could in the past to do more guerrilla marketing, becoming complacent with our stream of clients through the agencies.
I am trying to correct course as soon as possible now and fix all of this. I've made many mistakes along the way and I own up to that. But at this point, I might not even have a business if we don't do something fast.
Our website: http://www.sataysfied.com/
Our Yelp page: http://www.yelp.com/biz/sataysfied-catering-san-mateo
Most of the customers that have tried us, loves our food. All of our past business were through these 2 catering agencies. Moving forward, I will try to build direct clientele with startups more and hustle, starting immediately.
I'm not asking for a hand out but I am pretty much begging, if you are in the Bay Area, and have a startup, work for one, or know people, I ask that you give us a chance to cater to you and/or help spread the word. We can use all the business we can get. We cater to startups of all sizes. If you have any feedback or anything, please leave a note.
All the best,
Feldo
123 comments
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 191 ms ] threadOP, since you are going to do another pivot. Do you have plans on being your own agency and catering directly and having a direct relation with startups or are you looking for another agency?
First see if you can apologize to the catering agencies and get back in good graces with them. You did not give us any details why they dropped you. Speak to a manager there and see if it is possible for them to take your account back.
Failing that try to find other catering agencies in your area.
If you cannot find work by catering agencies try changing your business to one that drives trucks around. This is a company in my area that does well with Korean Tacos http://www.seoultacostl.com/
You might try to find areas you can get permission to park your truck at and cater to the crowds there. I would suggest startups and startup events, and try things like Korean Tacos where you mix one food item with another. A lot of people who work at startups like Asian food.
Consider doing a Kickstarter so you can raise money to do your own food catering agency to serve your business and other catering companies. Maybe build on your web site so it can be marketed better. Put in a program where a startup can request that you cater their events.
Make sure you create accounts for your catering service on as many social networking sites as possible to help promote it. Find web sites on food reviews on businesses in your area and email them to do a review on your business. Advertise in the local yellow pages as well.
I hope this advice helps,
As for the food truck route, unfortunately that is a very high cost (truck and all) and a huge deviation from our business model. I do have plans for a kickstarter like campaign.
I genuinely appreciate your advice.
Can you share with us what mistake led you to being dropped by your biggest source of revenue? In these sorts of things often an 'after action' report works out pretty well, it goes "Oh we blew it, we did X, this caused Y, we've changed P, Q, and R so that X can't happen again." Startups do that all the time, one of the more common ones is "we didn't secure our servers and gave out everyones login information" or something along those lines.
Restaurants are particularly hard places to succeed because not only are they regulation rich (so there is a lot of energy expended in dealing with the health department) they are abused by fickle tastes. (Ask anyone who has tried to run a Greek restaurant in the south bay for a while now, not sure why but they are darn hard to find)
Your web site talks about attending food festivals, do you have a truck? The Curryupnow folks gave a pretty textbook example of how to build a following by driving to specific spots, tweeting about it, and introducing their cuisine to folks outside their building. That skipped the whole 'get us a catering gig' problem which is, as you've experienced, a challenge.
I talked to the CEO of the catering company but he didn't want to over step and I understood. At this point I don't believe it is something salvageable.
Must have been more than that or the culmination of many errors.
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These catering agencies are so mercurial that that's just not an effective channel of distribution
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That particular catering agency perhaps has other issues and satayco would have lost them anyway. Hence the "can't rescue the relationships" (realizes it's an abusive relationship so to speak).
Trust me, we know. Most of us here have our own thing going on, and we know that terrible sinking feeling. The feeling that you've disappointed your friends, family, the whole world even. I also know how terrible of a place it is to be. And putting your name to it is much harder. I don't really have any advice because I don't think I'm qualified enough on this topic. But I will say this, stay strong. This is not the end of the world. Your family and friends will not stop talking to you, they will not estrange you, insult you, humiliate you or anything like that. What ever thoughts arise, they are all in your head. Make sure you have enough personal savings to tide you over, and please stay strong.
What you did was perfectly fine. If someone has enough of an allergy that the closed side of fish sauce would hurt someone, they have to say that, and ask for special prep.
Keeping a business afloat nowadays is so difficult. I just scrape by month to month myself. I hope you turn things around.
"Make your own reality TV show" is your solution to a dude who needs clients immediately? C'mon.
But no kidding around, they're doing good work and definitely merit a place in a startup's food rotation. I give them a full endorsement, and I'm a picky child with regard to catered food.
Food is a very difficult business. I'm heartbroken for your setback. I hope you find a way back out of the hole. Good luck.
- From what I gather you are 3 guys (who cook ethnic food) who get hired through a catering agency.
- For Zeus knows why, your biggest client (the catering agency) dropped you.
- You mention not marketing properly and now seem to not have a good customer list to cater to (pun intended).
In your situation the best option would be:
Print out some flyers and cook some samples. Go door to door to every fucking office park in a 5 mile radius and take some sales. Do this before lunch! Now, about those samples. You have to prepare plenty of samples. Put out your best stuff. The way you display them is very, very important. Make sure that everything looks and is clean and tidy. Wear some nice clothes that don't smell like you came out of a kitchen. Smile.
Do this for 3 times a week for 3 months, then once a week forever. You will not have to worry about this happening again.
Remember: Every person that tries and likes your food is a customer. Take an order right there. Close the sale while they are enjoying the sample. Don't hesitate.
Also, raise your prices by one dollar in the entire menu, and give a $1 discount to those who order right there. People can't turn down tasty discounted food.
Disclaimer: My sister in law has a business like yours and I grew it to a very nice size with that same tactic.
Some office buildings wont let you in to some floors. Bribe the security guards with samples. A good way to do this is to just hand out a sample before even talking. Hand it out, and tell them about what you do. Don't forget that these guys are also customers.
One thing though that I've found is when you give good ideas to people you'd be surprised at the amount of excuses they have for not following up on suggestions. The lack of "oomph".
What I'm saying is this. It's easy for someone to write a plea (as was done here) for help on HN (or anywhere). That takes almost no effort at all (like a magic "diet pill" when you want to lose weight). Let's see if the entrepreneur actually follows through on the advice that you gave.
(If you do a follow up post or anything on what happens here please email me in case I miss it because I'd like to know the outcome positive or negative to the outbound sales effort).
Hitting meetups - well it might be a good excuse to wait. You know, that meetup tonight is not so big, I will do Thursdays. Plus Thursdays, well the venue does its own catering and won't let me in till ....
Get outside the nearest two pre made sandwich places - and success is selling twenty lunch packs to people who otherwise would have bought a sandwich - this lunchtime.
Get out if the office and get out now.
Good luck :-).
Stop focusing on building your brand and start focusing on distributing your product. You need to accept the fact that for whatever reason, people choose to label you as a foreigner because you cook ethnic food, so you lose branding credibility. Therefore, you need to outsource your branding. You can leverage your distribution channels to increase distribution and build your brand simultaneously. Your distribution channels are a) your restaurant, and b) a catering business. Why not sell your food to other catering companies? There is no reason for it to be exclusive to your own. When more catering companies sell your food, you control more distribution channels and move more product. Your product is your food, and that is what differentiates you.
Reduce the cost of preparing your food [1] and outsource distribution. Allow catering businesses to serve your food. Tell them you will give them a discount if they call it "<Your Last Name> Food." [2] From the sounds of it, customers love your food (demand is high) and few people know how to cook it (supply is low). So price can be high. Just show catering companies how much they can charge for your food, and they will jump at the opportunity to buy your food at seems like a large discount. Not only will they distribute your food, but they will build your brand because a positive brand for your food increases their sales.
[1] Start by reducing cost of labor (chefs, sous chefs, dishwashers, waitstaff) and inventory (make more efficient shopping trips).
[2] The name of your food is your only branding decision. Choose a good one.
This part makes no sense.
That said, there is a lot less racism going on in the Bay Area. This shouldn't really be an issue as long as you speak clearly and enunciate your words (the hallmark of any good salesman, really).
Disclosure: I'm white.
I don't agree with that. I think it's just more hidden or wrapped up sarcastic "hipster" jokes. Something similar to http://jezebel.com/5905291/a-complete-guide-to-hipster-racis...
Disclosure: I'm black.
Um, the word thug is actually of Indian origin. It's borrowed into English. So based on this logic the original thugs who were Indian are now racist.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=thug
I never thought of "thug" as conveying an implication of the subject being black. "Thug" to me is more of a attitude / mindset / way of life, not something that corresponds to race. IOW, it's as easy to be a white "thug" as a black "thug". In fact, now that I think about it, the context in which I usually think of the word "thug" is the phrase "jack booted thug" which has connotations of Nazis, who were - as far as I know - mostly white. The other thing the word "thug" brings to mind for me, is the stereotyped image of a big white (Italian, probably) guy in an expensive suit, working as an "enforcer" for some mafioso type or something.
Maybe it varies by region, age or other factors, but I would not think of myself as being racist towards blacks by using the word "thug".
Plus racism is going to help the business in this case. This is ethnic food. If some white dude went around selling his stuff people wouldn't buy it because it would not be authentic.
The comment lost its value with that one statement. Was there even info stated by the OP that this was the case? I know a few very high priced restaurants in NY that serve high priced "ethnic" food and the owners are both foreign but NOT from the region the food is from. They're branding is pretty strong.
This is exactly how i marketed my first ONLINE STORE when i was 16 (that's 6 years ago now). I Made about 2000 Pounds doing that alone that summer.
Role-play asking for referrals. Ask for more than one. Ask for business, restaurant, catering company, friend, co-worker referrals. Get together and review how asking for referrals has been working. Brainstorm. Get better and better at it.
A few people will give you DOZENS of leads to follow up. Most will give you at least one. Get phone numbers AND email addresses AND business names where you can. Be prepared.
Also, begin connecting to everyone you think could give you a referral or new business on LinkedIn and export contact to get their email when the accept your connection request. Send an email to thank them for accepting (this is not spam, this is a transactional "thanks" if you write shortly after they accept your connection), and give them a short, compelling pitch that you plan and modify and improve.
(I'll mention you to the people I know at UC Berkeley and tech company as well. Can't promise anything though, :-/ )
Over the last one year, I've seen many people being helped by HNers. One particular example being that of a founder in India being helped with a lawyer to take care of some legal nuisance.
Wish you good luck. And hope you grow big.
Best of luck to you!
but if anyone is listening, west LA needs more startup-oriented catering. it's a pain in the ass to go to lunch as everyone drives and delivery is shitty because everyone drives (hence food is always cold, late, etc.)
Several people have pointed out that you may be overreacting, and I agree. If that turns out not to be the case, definitely keep in mind that the west coast is absolutely not the be-all, end-all of startup culture, and startup culture absolutely is not the be-all, end-all of your potential clientele.
You clearly do your work well. Instead of freaking out over a knee-jerk reaction from one of your middlemen, look for more stable resources. Collect references from your happy clients and publish them. Unless you're seriously misrepresenting yourself, there's no reason you can't succeed in spite of this mishap.
Good luck! You could try the free samples approach at the Hacker Dojo one lunchtime, perhaps? see if you can get a regular set of customers there.
Will definitely reach out to the Hacker Dojo and other hacker spaces per your suggestion. Thank you so much!
-Matt@Gigwalk.com
I've visited Portland recently and saw one of the food truck areas in downtown near 10th. It was nice.
Satay, a dish of marinated skewered and grilled meats served with sauce, originated in Indonesia in the 19th century, invented by street vendors after an influx of immigrants to the country made it popular among locals.
-- Who originated it? Immigrants to Indonesia? Emigrants from Indonesia? I'm really confused.
Staying true to our Indonesian roots, my grandmother created a unique family receipe we could call our own and have passed that receipe down through the family for generations.
-- "Generations" usually means more than 2.
-- These are small things, but if you redo your website at some point, you might want to be somewhat more clear and credible.
How would you sell your competitor's product?
Think about that. If I wanted to hire you to sell my food product for me, how would you kick ass and take names?
List your top ten competitors (not just ethnic food). What are their advantages over your business?
Why do you have to sell ethnic food? Does anyone deliver burgers where you operate. I mean, GOOD burgers? How hard would it be to launch an experiment to sell an absolutely fucking-great would-kill-for-it "asian burger" for $10?
Can you sell other provider's food for them? Why don't YOU become the catering service? You might do far better this way than making your own food. Are there other good ethnic food providers that you could market? A supermarket does well because they have something to please everyone. If I don't want your kind of food there's nothing you can do to make me buy it. If, however, you offer me five different kinds of food choices you might actually have a sale every day of the week.
Can you package some food and sell it to roving food trucks (frozen, refrigerated, whatever)?
Call your local TV station. Find out who you have to lather-up to get on TV with your exciting super-hip ethnic food offerings. Be ridiculously upbeat. Create hype. Give them a reason to put you on TV.
Call every wedding and party planner you can find. Maybe you can land a job that way. I still think that if you are in the food business it might be wiser to not be in a super-narrow ethnic corner but rather be able to offer a wide range of choices.
Here in Santa Monica there's a regular event where a number of streets are closed from car traffic and food vendors put-up canopies and sell their stuff. Anything like that going on where you are?
Any race tracks of any kind near you? You could do lots of business if you could get a space at a good event. Swap meets are the same.
Do you have the means to get a mobile food truck? I don't know that business at all but I used to know someone who made good money with one.
Start an ethnic food meetup of some sort. Charge $15 all you can eat (or whatever makes sense). Get some music. Make it fun. Make it an event somewhere.
Any local camping areas? Crazy idea, but maybe you can print some flyers "we'll deliver your lunch to your campsite on Saturday".
Talk to tour bus operators. Maybe they have some ideas on how you could market your food to their customers. Offer them a cut.
See if you can find any movie productions that need catering.
Contact Home Depot or Lowes. I see guys with hot-dog stands right outside their doors there all the time. Not a clue what it might take to be able to do something like that.
Offer a program through which you'll cook and deliver someone's lunch for the entire week. Some might love the convenience of having five pre-packed meals in their refrigerator that they can just microwave at work and have something special that tastes good.
From watching the Gordon Ramsey shows I remember that, more often than not, he'd come in and grossly simplify the menus. I don't have the experience to evaluate your menu. Maybe you can get some help from a local culinary school?
He also did a lot of testing on the streets in some cases. Cook-up a variety of samples for food you offer now and a few new ideas and go pass them out for free on the street. Ask for feedback. You might discover that people aren't really in love with your food. For control I would have some tasty off-the-shelf microwave something to hand out as well.
I realize you probably need immediate income right now and might not have a lot of time or room for experiments. This is a tough spot to be. Do your best to be crea...
Our goal is not to become another catering agency. Our goal is to grow our business to cater to as many companies that will have us. I think its important to focus at what we're good at and I firmly believe in this model.
We have considered selling Satays frozen and ship it but that isn't easy and there is a lot of issues around this. We can't ship cooked food due to lots of regulations and laws. Its an incredibly difficult path as we have considered in the past (before the current pivot) to be the Omaha Steaks of Satays or be in stores like Costco. I have explored both extensively and landed to the conclusion that the business we are doing now was the best for our future.
We have had a few press coverage in the past to be honest but I don't know how much that has helped us as a whole. Especially since we have pivoted but I will reach out to them again soon.
We did do festivals and events before and it was very hit or miss and the total revenue was actually less than what we were doing now.
No race tracks nearby that I can think of. I am definitely going to do a meetup as well as reach out to current meetups soon. Not sure if there are many movie productions that are around here but we are definitely open to any business that would love catering.
Our menu is tiny so we don't have an overly complex menu at the moment. We started on the street with just Satays and expanded the menu there before pivoting twice to the current model. Our customers have definitely been satisfied with our food, it really is more about reaching out I believe.
I greatly appreciate you taking out the time to offer suggestions and will look at the other stuff mentioned. I am willing to try anything at this point and will think it over for future implementation if we survive long enough. Above all, I appreciate your kind words. Thank you.
Another thought. Find your local SBDC chapter (Small Business Development Center) and SCORE (?? of Retired Executives). You might be able to connect with someone with deep knowledge of the food business who could help you figure it out. There might also be loans or grants that, along with advise, could help you get past this problem.
I deeply appreciate the suggestions and will look into it. Thank you.